The need for clean drinkable water has increased over the last century. In the last fifty years, the desalination of sea or brackish water has improved such that it is becoming an affordable option for nations that are in need of fresh water.
A primary problem with a desalinisation process is the movement of the water offshore to a processing plant on the land. Another is the costs of developing high water pressures. One of the more effective methods to do this involves the use of pumps. The use of powered pumps is the most common practice. This will add to the overhead costs of the process as electricity will be needed to drive these pumps. Depending on the volume of water needed, multiple pumps are sometimes needed, which increases the power overhead costs with each pump that is used. The high energy consumed to achieve the high pressures used in reverse osmosis plants is another concern. The high pressure is required to force the fluid pumped through small membrane filters during the filtering process.
On a smaller scale, hand pumps can be used to draw water from the water source. This is inefficient and the return for the effort put in generally is only enough for a small amount of people which restricts this method of drawing water greatly depending on the amount of water needed.
For both these methods, there is the potential for build up of brine concentrate at the outfall (e.g., outlet, exit) location, with potential associated stratification and anoxia, particularly in areas of lesser wave/tide/current activity with restricted circulation.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least substantially ameliorate one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art.